Challenge 576

Apocalypses Then and Now

In Charles C. Cole’s “This Means Warma,” the mysterious note-writer has an oral or graphical handicap: he substitutes [w] for [k]. But he can use [k]. Where does it occur? The substitution occurs only in what phonetic position?

Were any of Emmaline’s four children born alive? Is Emmaline’s depression due to their deaths or is it a chronic state of mind? Why do Emmaline and Alander do what they do?

The plot is based on an endlessly repeating cycle sometimes known as “eternal return.” Do Emmaline and Alander remember or learn anything from their previous incarnations or do they continuously relive an eddy in the stream of time? How would the story have to change if the theme of “return” were omitted?

Does the plot overstep Bewildering Stories’ guideline about stories that end with “but it was all a dream” or the equivalent?